Oral Roberts is making a change, firing head basketball coach Scott Sutton after 22 years with the program (18 as head coach). Sutton is the winningest coach in program history, with an overall record of 328-247 (.570) during his tenure.
Looking at the results for the last few years, it is not hard to see why ORU felt it was time to make a change. The Golden Eagles haven’t been to the NCAA Tournament since 2008, also the last year with a conference regular season championship. In retrospect, that year marked the end of Sutton’s peak at Oral Roberts, winning four straight Summit League titles and making their third straight NCAAT appearance.
However, in the past two seasons the Golden Eagles are just 22-39 with two straight bottom three finishes in the conference standings. Sutton landed on our very first Hot Seat Report for 2017, though the timing of the firing is a bit of surprise given the current state of the coaching carousel.
Scott is the son of Hall of Fame head coach Eddie Sutton, for whom he played at Oklahoma State in the early 1990s. His older brother, Sean, was also a head coach at Oklahoma State and had been on Scott’s ORU staff since 2011.
